


Amongst Firelight

by FuwaFuwaMedb



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26795269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuwaFuwaMedb/pseuds/FuwaFuwaMedb
Summary: A young Rin Tohsaka finds that her eyes perceive a figure on the other side of the firelight. No matter the circumstances, there is always someone there, watching over her.
Relationships: Cú Chulainn | Lancer/Tohsaka Rin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	Amongst Firelight

She’d seen him the first time during a school trip.

The priest had sent her off with the other children, waving as the bus has gone. She’d laughed, chatted away with the other kids on the bus until they had reached the woods. Their teachers had led them into the woods with the other chaperones and parents, helping them pitch tends and build a fire.

All together, they’d gathered in the large open field of a camp ground and sang songs or chattered away more. A few of the girls were making bracelets together, but she hadn’t been able to focus.

The moment she’d turned to ask to join, she’d seen a flash of blue.

There looked to be a boy there, watching from the other side of the flames. His red eyes gleamed like the depths of the fire, drawing her closer and closer. She tried to move around the fire a bit, to go talk to the boy, but he wasn’t on the other side.

She moved back, back to the spot she’d been in before.

The boy smiled, giving a small wave.

“Tohsaka!”

Rin paused as she felt an arm around her waist, yanking her back.

“Tohsaka! It’s dangerous to go too close to the fire.”

“Emiya,” Rin frowned at the redhead, her eyes going back to the fire.

Once more, the blue haired boy had vanished.

“Did you see where the blue haired boy went?”

Emiya followed her gaze, frowning deeper at the empty side of the fire. “Are you talking about Matou Shinji or Ryuudou Issei?”

“No, this boy had red eyes.” Rin frowned, looking around at the campsite again.

She’d seen the boy _in_ the fire. Not around it, not chatting on the other side of it. It was only from the position she’d been in before that she’d been able to see him.

Why was she seeing him at all though?

The campers and the adults all went to bed, the many a couple adults moving to watch the fire for a bit while they rested. She could see one of them scampering off, leaving the fire area unattended for the moment.

So- naturally, she had to go over to the fire.

He was there again, hair messed up and wearing strange armor.

Rin reached out, trying to touch the boy.

“TOHSAKA!”

The adult was back.

Her luck, it seemed, had run out.

Rin listened to Kirei complain when she got home.

Playing with fire, tempting god’s method of smiting; the priest was going on for far too long. He was getting a bit annoying now that she was stuck listening to him. It was him who was making her donate money for his church. She could have been getting more magecraft books, but she had to donate. It was like a bill for mages.

Bills were stupid though.

“Go home.”

The priest glared at her, making her stick her tongue out at him.

“The elegance and refinement of the Tohsaka name is being besmirched by your childish behavior.” Kirei moved to the door. “Your servants will be watching. I would suggest you behave yourself better for them, lest god and all his angels take away the gift of your magecraft. There are many sad ends for little mages who lose their powers to god’s divine will.”

Rin shivered.

Still, fear of divine intervention or not, it was a week later she found herself passing the big fireplace in the living room when she saw that the fire was lit.

The boy sat on the other side of the flames, grinning and waving softly as they made eye contact.

Rin covered her eyes, moving to the stairs.

There was no such thing as fire boys.

The house was older. As much as she wanted to avoid seeing him again, Rin couldn’t help but to light fires each cold winter night. She found herself moving from chair to chair, peeking around their backs to look towards the fire.

Sometimes, the boy was injured.

The would be crisscrossing wounds across his arms or his face. Sometimes his hair was slicked back and sometimes it was falling loose around his shoulders. Sometimes he had a blackened eye or nose. Other times, he was fine, smiling and waving.

He always wore fur clothing and leather straps.

He always smiled and waved her way.

“Who are you?”

She had to ask.

The wind was howling around the house and the winter was being especially harsh. She was trapped in the house and food was dwindling.

He was moving his mouth, but she couldn’t hear it.

“I. Am. Rin.” She motioned at herself, speaking slowly.

The other was talking, but the words weren’t reaching her.

Rin groaned, leaving the fireplace area and walking to her books. She could feel the stirring in her stomach, the empty insides of her stomach pounding at the rest of her body. She couldn’t use the electricity to make something to eat. The food on the counter and in the cupboards was dwindling with the mounting snow outside.

Claws were carving at the insides of her chest as the night went to day.

Looking outside, she could see the blizzard was worsening.

The television wasn’t working. The radio was broken.

She’d turned the knob and the thing had screeched for several minutes before she’d tried tossing it down the stairs. She moved around the kitchen, climbing onto the counters and wondering if the servants would come through the snow to deliver food.

A beast was growling for how loud her stomach growled.

Throwing the rest of the logs onto the fire, Rin moved herself and all the blankets to the hearth sitting area. She moved the chairs to block the colder air in the room.

The boy frowned, moving a little closer.

For hours, she looked over at him, waiting and waiting for something to happen.

She could hear the winds on the rooftop. She could see the flames flicker around the image of the boy.

She could see the food in his hands and closed her eyes, trying not to move more than she needed to. The pain was worsening. Her toes had never felt so cold before.

Blue Hair moved his lips again.

“I can’t hear you,” Rin murmured.

The boy moved closer, raising a hand.

“It’s pointless,” she told him. “Magecraft can’t make a fire a portal to anywhere. I shouldn’t be able to see anyone in the fire right now.”

The boy looked closer, lifting his head a little higher as though to get a better view. His red eyes flashed, his hand motioning for her to wait a moment.

“I never even got to be in a grail war.”

There was so much pain. There was so much coldness. The fire was dying, the flames turning to mere embers as she felt one of the windows in the room shatter under the weight of the snow.

A pair of arms pulled her from the ground. She could feel warmth, great and wonderful warmth, pressing against her chest as her arms were wrapped around a pair of shoulders.

The warmth spun out around her. She opened her eyes, looking around at the flames all around her.

The world was filled with trees and greenery. She could see the air filled with smoke, her body moved carefully to the ground nearby.

“Hang on,” a blurry figure told her. “I’m going to pour some of the broth from my dinner for you. You’re looking like you’re on Dun Scaith’s doorstep, lass.”

Her eyes closed.

~

Kirei moved quietly, cursing the weather and the conditions of the world.

Emergency services were moving around the city, delivering supplies to those in need, but they had failed in getting to the Tohsaka residence.

He could see the window was shattered to the living room, the main floor almost entirely covered by the packed in snow. He had to double back, gathering the foolish king of Heroes from his restful slumber.

“She’s probably dead.”

Kirei shot him a look, climbing off the emergency snow mobile and rushing to the house.

The king pulled a ladder from his gates, helping him into the building and down to the main floor.

Wrappers and trash littered the floor.

The chair and the furniture had been overturned, blocking the view of the fireplace.

“Smart kid,” Gilgamesh mumbled.

She was smart. It’s what would make her a good candidate for part of the grail in the future. They had a couple years before it was time for the war. She was ready for this. Or rather, she would be.

The king had to help with moving the furniture.

The girl had actually taped and glued a blockade around the fire, keeping the heat contained to a smaller space.

But… there was no body.

“Where… Where did she go?”

Kirei looked over at the king, watching the golden haired man moved to the fire and smirk.

“Gilgamesh-“

“I have not seen this kind of magecraft before… I thought you said the Tohsaka girl only did gem magecraft?”

“She only does gem based magecraft. Her father knew nothing else himself. The only magic they can do otherwise is the spirit evocation and their talents at that…” He held off, noting the look from the other.

“This was not simple magecraft that could be done with gems.”

The man knelt down, running his fingers over the ashes.

“This smells divine.”

~

And divine it was.

Rin smiled softly, feeling the familiar pair of arms wrapping around her waist. Her stomach pain was lessening. The world was coming back into focus. Her arms and her legs felt so weak, but the boy behind her didn’t mind that.

Looking at her from before the fireplace in their small wooden home, the boy grinned.

“Feeling up for some food, Rin?”

“I think I can eat it myself today,” Rin replied, turning around and wrapping her arms around him. “Just hand me my bowl and I’ll prove it.”

“Oh?”

“Mhmm.”

“I got you something for after we’re done eating as well.”

Something for after they were done eating?

Rin sat up, slowly resting against the wall and the pillows as the boy moved to where his bags were. He was shifting things around, pulling out a small parchment wrapped object.

At noting her eyes upon him, he waved the object in his hands, grinning proudly.

“The witch of Dun Scaith heard me talking during my last training session. She and her sister gave it to me for you. You said you did gem magic so… You’ll have to see what it is after we eat.”

“Cu Chulainn!”

“And not a second before that.” He moved over to the fireplace and settled into one of the two seats.

The flash of a smile was the same as ever.

And, as they settled in, she almost wondered if she had had a life before this.

Time and possibilities had never felt so endless before she had wrapped her arms around the blue-haired boy from the other side of the fire.


End file.
